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D(reams) of existing wor(l)ds : a postmodern approach to the teaching of Literature in the English classroom
Bibliography: pages 87-92.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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School of Education
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613293347078144 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Berry, Kirsty |
| author2 | Bakker, Nigel |
| author_browse | Bakker, Nigel Berry, Kirsty |
| author_facet | Bakker, Nigel Berry, Kirsty |
| author_sort | Berry, Kirsty |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Bibliography: pages 87-92. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18317 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:49.949Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | School of Education |
| publisherStr | School of Education |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18317 D(reams) of existing wor(l)ds : a postmodern approach to the teaching of Literature in the English classroom Berry, Kirsty Bakker, Nigel English literature - Study and teaching Bibliography: pages 87-92. The aim of this dissertation is to present a means to redress imbalances that have operated in and continue to pervade our school classrooms. The singularity that is demanded by compliance, conformity and order of the Modernist era is now rejected in a celebration of in diversity and heterogeneity. At the root of the journey is belief in the power fit challenges that lie within the dissolution of our foundations and frames of reference - to capture the moment, and to move beyond into a new set of relationships with a world and those who constitute it. Postmodernism is about a new way of thinking - being conscious to the manner in which we are positioned and being aware that the knowledge we gain is not innocent, but carries with it a historical weighting. Our struggle in the classroom rests in language, for we fundamentally recognise that it is through language that we are constituted as subject, but also in which we act as a constituting subject. The task of the postmodernist is to disturb the constructs of our lived realities - "to make strange" and to enter into new relationships that are grounded in possibility. It is the postmodern moment that is the point of "rupture" (Foucault's term) - that moment of realization of being within a language and a particular historical and cultural framework [Marshall: l992:3]. For this to be possible, it is necessary to uncover the mechanisms that take control and how they do so. Truths are provisional and limited, thus any transformative potential lies in the spaces that are constituted in the differences provided by that which is meaning. Our task in the classroom is to recognise the frames of reference which validate the subject's position in the world, and lay open alternative empowering channels to move beyond the immediate. Literature is our instrument of liberation. As we seek to understand how our meanings have been constituted, a state of constant deferral of meaning must be achieved.-In the classroom, such possibilities create a new type of "knower", one whose meaning is validated by experienced and whose positioned is guaranteed by a redefined reader-text-author-teacher relationship. We regard Literature as an act of interaction, and as unity lies in its destination (the reader), it is critical that we redefine the ideas about society's centre and the margin. Our struggle in the classroom, therefore, is about the questions of identity, place and values. 2016-03-28T14:42:19Z 2016-03-28T14:42:19Z 1997 Master Thesis Masters MEd http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18317 eng application/pdf School of Education Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | English literature - Study and teaching Berry, Kirsty D(reams) of existing wor(l)ds : a postmodern approach to the teaching of Literature in the English classroom |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | D(reams) of existing wor(l)ds : a postmodern approach to the teaching of Literature in the English classroom |
| title_full | D(reams) of existing wor(l)ds : a postmodern approach to the teaching of Literature in the English classroom |
| title_fullStr | D(reams) of existing wor(l)ds : a postmodern approach to the teaching of Literature in the English classroom |
| title_full_unstemmed | D(reams) of existing wor(l)ds : a postmodern approach to the teaching of Literature in the English classroom |
| title_short | D(reams) of existing wor(l)ds : a postmodern approach to the teaching of Literature in the English classroom |
| title_sort | d reams of existing wor l ds a postmodern approach to the teaching of literature in the english classroom |
| topic | English literature - Study and teaching |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18317 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT berrykirsty dreamsofexistingworldsapostmodernapproachtotheteachingofliteratureintheenglishclassroom |